


Buy Or Sellout My Heart

by luchalibrarian



Category: Psych
Genre: Cuddlefic, Drinking, Drunkenness, Insecurities, Jumping to Conclusions, Love, M/M, break-ups, drunk Carlton, happy endings, post-series finale, romantic, schmoopy love stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 06:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6108628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luchalibrarian/pseuds/luchalibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlton jumps to all the wrong conclusions when he sees a for sale sign in Henry's front yard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buy Or Sellout My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Set shortly after the show has ended. Dedicated to the Henry to my Carlton.

“You’re selling your house?! Why didn’t you tell me?” Carlton had barely shut the door to his office before he started bellowing. Way to be subtle, Chief.

“Yes, I’m selling my house, Carlton. It’s time for me to make some changes, and the first one is moving somewhere new.”

“By new you mean… a different house here in Santa Barbara, correct?” He’d settled himself behind his desk and was looking none too comfortable. In fact, he looked like he was interrogating Henry.

“I don’t… I haven’t decided that yet.”

“Henry...”

“Don’t blow this out of proportion. My house just went on the market and you know how these things are. Selling takes time.”

“So, you were planning to move out of Santa Barbara and you weren’t going to tell me? I see.” Carlton looked absolutely deflated.

“Carlton, look… I just…”

“Get out of my office.”

“What? Calm down, babe, and let’s talk about this.”

“Don’t tell me what to do, Spencer. Get out of my office.”

Henry stared back at him, the younger man hadn’t taken this tone with him since long before their relationship had began. “Carlton, I don’t…”

He jumped up, angry, “Mr. Spencer, get out of my office or I’ll have you escorted out! Go!”

Henry stood up slowly and slipped on his sunglasses. “Whatever you say… Chief Lassiter.”

 

++++

 

Carlton’s mood continued to sour through his workday, and the SBPD staff paid the price. McNab was verbally dressed down to the point he started crying in the middle of the station, causing Brannigan to come to his defense. Finally, the clock struck five and Carlton went home after a quick stop at the liquor store for a bottle of sweet Kentucky bourbon and a couple of empty boxes.

They hadn’t even been dating six months, how did so many damn Hawaiian shirts get into his house? He sipped… no, scratch that, chugged, his bourbon and packed everything that belonged to or reminded him of Henry into two sturdy liquor boxes. Once he was sober he’d drop them on Henry’s doorstep and be done. For now, he’d wallow in his own self-pity and pickle himself with what remained of the bottle of Maker’s Mark while trying to figure out where the most promising relationship he’d had in years had gone horribly, horribly wrong.

By 8 p.m. Carlton had finished three-quarters of the bottle, was dressed in pajama bottoms and a t-shirt, and was eating cookie dough straight from the tube while standing in front of the fridge. Needless to say, he was in a bad shape and would regret these decisions come morning.

Then came a loud knock at the door.

He stumbled to the door and opened it much wider than intended, nearly tipping himself over in the process, very surprised to see Henry on the other side.

“Henry! You came to finish ripping my heart out! I packed your shit in boxes, so how about you get it and get the fuck out of here, because I don’t want to see you ever again you fucking asshole.”

He tried to take a step backward, tripped over the rug, and fell back against an armchair.

Completely sober, Henry managed to get into the house, shut the door, and catch him before he fell on his ass. “Okay… Carlton, you are really drunk and out of your mind. Come on, let’s get you up and somewhere safe.” He hauled Carlton upright and moved him over to the couch to sit. “Don’t get up. Just sit there.”

A quick look around and Henry pocketed Carlton’s keys, just in case. In theory Carlton knew better than to try to get behind the wheel, but Henry had never seen him in this state before.

“Get out. I don’t want you here.”

“I know you don’t want me here. I came to talk to you, and I obviously can’t do that right now because you’re sauced out of your gourd. But the least I can do is make sure you don’t hurt yourself.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Henry sighed and went to the kitchen. “Get it all out of your system, Carlton. Curse at me, call me names, whatever you need to do.” In his drunken state Carlton had made a mess in the kitchen and wouldn’t be happy about it once he sobered up, so Henry cleaned up after him and hid the Maker’s Mark as well. “Where’s the box of my stuff?”

Carlton gestured towards his bedroom, where Henry found two boxes sitting on the floor, and brought them over to the couch to sit down. “Let’s see what’s in here.”

“No, you get out. I told you... I told you I don’t want to see you.”

“I know you’re upset right now because I didn’t tell you I wanted to sell my house, and I really want to discuss this with you, but I can’t right now. In the morning when you’re sober, we’ll talk.”

While Henry went through the boxes Carlton watched, still having enough mental faculties to pay attention to what he was doing.

“No wonder I can’t find my shirts, they’re all here,” Henry mumbled to himself as he held a particularly bright salmon-themed shirt up against his torso. He pulled a picture of the two of them out of the box and smiled, staring at it. “This is when I fell for you. You finally let that giant wall down and had a real conversation with me, and you kissed me goodnight. Like we were teenagers on a date.” He smiled and held the picture out to Carlton. Much to his surprise Carlton took the picture from him and didn’t immediately rip it in half.

Carlton stared at the photo in silence. It had been taken during the spring. The photo was from the night before they’d gone to the lake to get away from everything and spend a couple of days on the water. Well, that had been the original plan, anyway. Sure, they’d fished for a few hours the first morning they’d arrived, then spent the remainder of their time locked in a cabin screwing like teenagers whose parents had left them alone for the first time. It was a thrilling weekend, and until today, the thrill hadn’t left for Carlton.

“I gave up so much for you, Henry. I broke it off with Marlowe… for you. For us. Because I believed you. I could be with her right now. Happy.”

“You haven’t been happy?” Why was he even engaging in this conversation knowing Carlton’s drunken state?

“Me? I’m not the one who’s moving away without telling you.”

“I’m not moving away, not just yet, and I was going to tell you so we could talk about it. And I’m guessing someone snitched on me when they saw the For Sale sign go up… and now we’re here. This has gotten way out of hand before any facts have been stated, Carlton.”

Carlton handed the picture back and scrunched himself up against the arm of the couch.

“Keep it, it’s yours.” The mixture of bourbon and cookie dough was starting to make his stomach hurt.

“Are you calling it quits, Carlton? Because I sure haven’t. I would’ve expected more detective work out of you.”

“How can you sit there and tell me you haven’t already written us off when you’re planning to move and didn’t even have the balls to tell me?”

“You have a mouth on you when you’re drunk and belligerent. I haven’t heard this much cursing from you since we met. I have to say, it’s a little bit hot. I wish you were more sober so I could take advantage of it.”

“Stop trying to sweet talk me, Henry.” Carlton rubbed his stomach and groaned.

“If you’re going to throw up, go in the bathroom now. I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, but I’m not cleaning that up.” Henry was pointing in the direction of the bathroom and shaking his head. “Who the hell drinks bourbon and eats raw cookie dough?”

Carlton sat still for a few moments, trying to calm his stomach. “I’ll be back.” He bolted off to the bathroom in record setting fashion for an impaired man.

While Carlton tended to business, Henry locked up, turned the lights out, and waited for him in the bedroom. He knew when someone didn’t need to be alone, and this was one of those times. Twenty minutes later Carlton came out of the bathroom looking worse for wear. “You’re still here?” he said in a small voice, still holding his stomach.

“Mmhmm, I don’t want you to be alone tonight, so I’m staying, like it or not. Come lie down and I’ll rub your belly till you fall asleep.”

Luckily, he had no better judgment right now and was exhausted, so he crawled into bed and laid beside Henry. In turn, Henry wrapped him up in a tight embrace and gently rubbed his stomach as promised. “You smell minty.”

“Lots of Scope.”

“Good call. Now shhh and relax. You need to sleep this off.”

Within minutes Carlton turned on his side, stretched out, and rested his head on Henry’s chest, just like any other night they fell asleep together. Henry smiled and kissed his temple.

“It was never my intention to break up with you or hurt you. I don’t even know how this escalated so quickly. I was trying to surprise you and you jumped to massively wrong conclusions when you didn’t have all the information.”

“Surprise? What surprise? I don’t like surprises,” Carlton mumbled against Henry’s chest.

“You’re still awake,” he said with a chuckle. Big miscommunication on the surprise element; Carlton was too quirky for his own good. “Good, just listen and don’t say anything until I’m done, sweetheart.”

Carlton nodded a little and slid his hand under Henry’s shirt to rest on his bare stomach. Foul-mouthed and handsy when drunk; making a mental note of that for later.

“My plan was to sell my house and move in with you for a little while, then we’d sell your condo, and buy ourselves a lake house or beach house up the coast. We’ll still be close enough to work for you, even though we won’t live in Santa Barbara, but we’ll have privacy and be somewhere we both like. It’ll be a home just for us.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I thought...”

“I didn’t tell you because I wanted to surprise you and that was a big mistake on my part. I’m sorry. Now that the kids have moved to San Francisco, it’s time for Daddy to have a little fun. Do you want to have fun with Daddy?”

Carlton looked up at him with a quirked eyebrow. “I’ve already vomited twice, let’s not go for three, Henry.”

“Sorry. I thought you were drunk enough that you’d be game for that.”

“Nice try, but no, I will not call you Daddy.”

Henry smiled and nuzzled his head, “I’ll come up with something a little more appropriate, if that means we can forget today happened. I didn’t think you’d fly off the handle like this. Why would you think I’d move away without saying a word?”

“I don’t... I don’t know. I drove by and saw the sign and... it didn’t make any sense. I thought maybe you were moving to San Francisco to be closer to Shawn and Juliet. I panicked.” Henry knew all about his past serious relationships, and knew that Carlton had some deep-seated abandonment issues, though he’d never use those words to describe it. “I’m sorry for what I said. And for throwing you out of my office. And for... everything. I’m sorry, Henry.”

“And I’m sorry for not telling you what I was planning. Everything will be fine. But you can bet your cute little ass we’re talking about your drinking tomorrow when you’re sober enough for me to yell at you.”

Carlton grumbled, pretending not to hear him then undid his jeans. “Why are you in clothes?”

“I like it when you’re a little drunk. You’re grabby and demanding.”

“Take your clothes off.”

“I’ll get undressed, but no sex. I’m not setting off your bourbon and cookie dough time bomb just to get a nut.” Henry got out of bed long enough to go get a bottle of water from the fridge, and strip out of his clothes. He handed the water to Carlton along with a couple of aspirin. “Drink half of it now. You’re gonna have the hangover from hell tomorrow regardless, but if you start hydrating it might help.”

“You might have to-“

“Call in for you? Consider it done.”

“Might,” he said as he took another drink.

“I know you’re tough but you drank nearly a fifth of bourbon, babe. Even if you make it into work you won’t want to be there. Better to let them think you caught a stomach bug in this case, don’t you think?”

Carlton set the half-empty bottle on the nightstand and kicked most of his covers off, “You’re right. Come to bed, Papa Bear.”

Henry smiled and snuggled around his partner’s body. “Get some sleep, you need it. I’ll be here when you wake up.” He pressed a kiss to Carlton’s neck and smiled.

Carlton closed his hand around Henry’s and pulled his arm around his body, deepening the snuggle. “I’m sorry. I love you.”

“Shhh, I know. Everything is ok. Go to sleep, sweetheart.”

 


End file.
